Retired SD astronaut Gemar visits campus

Charles D. “Sam” Gemar, the only South Dakota-born astronaut, visited the South Dakota State University campus Oct. 4 at the invitation of an SDSU official.

Gemar is originally of Scotland and is a 1973 graduate of Scotland High School. He joined the Army out of high school and got an appointment to a military prep school. That opened the door for an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. He flew military aircraft before being accepted into NASA’s astronaut training program.

Gemar spent 12 years with NASA and flew on three Space Shuttle missions before moving to nonflying positions. He retired from NASA in February 1998 and then worked as chief of flight test and shuttle operations for Bombardier, which is a global leader in aviation, focused on designing, manufacturing and servicing the world's most exceptional business jets. He retired in 2014.

He had been living in Benton, Kansas, near Wichita, but recently moved to Sioux Falls.

Vernon Brown, SDSU’s associate vice president for external affairs, caught word of that and arranged Gemar’s visit to campus.

He met with SDSU aviation leaders and viewed various space projects undertaken by the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering. 

Among those Gemar interacted with was Todd Letcher, an associate professor in the mechanical engineering department, a member of the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium and mastermind of the college’s NASA projects.

“He was an extremely nice guy, and I think we're going to have him come to campus to give a presentation on his life and career, both the NASA part and the aviation parts of his career,” Letcher said.